2022 was a difficult year, but I somehow managed to get a lot of writing done. I must have written close to 800,000 this year including the seven drafts of the Demon WIP, the three drafts of the Queer Croc WIP, the short scifi story for my friend’s anthology, and all of the scripts for my podcast episodes. While I wrote a lot of words, it was a bit of a frustrating year because I felt like I wasn’t making progress with the Demon WIP or the Queer Croc WIP. I was just in a rewriting rut. In actuality, it was just my brain running over a problem multiple times, learning something new with each rewrite. Kind of wished it didn’t take me seven rewrites to realize the Demon book wanted to be three books, but oh well.

My Journey with the Queer Croc WIP

The Queer Croc WIP has an official title now: Kingsley. I think all of my books are going to be named after the vital character in the story. It’s simple but hopefully effective. It may also have a potential launch date but I’m still finalizing plans. Earlier in the year, I was really excited about the Queer Croc WIP because it felt sooo close to being ready for publication and I was going to get my edits back from my editor. And I’m still really excited and proud of it, but I think in a way I’ve been really struggling with accepting it for what it is. I keep waiting for someone to read it and tell me yes, I get it! Or, yes, this is ready for publication. But really, the only thing that matters is if I’m ready. 

The Queer Croc WIP isn’t a traditional fantasy book and I definitely do too much at once with it, but it’s mine – imperfections and all – and I’m really proud of it. I don’t know if it’ll find an audience, but I’m learning to admit that it doesn’t have to. All that matters is that it’s out there and it’s its own special little creature. 

Right now, I’m working on what is hopefully the last major rewrite. I’ve changed a lot from earlier this year and I’m completely rewriting one of the main character’s arcs to flesh out his motives, growth, and the world he occupies. I’m afraid to see what it does to my word count, but it’ll be worth it. I really think that this final rewrite will provide the book with what it needs and then I can share it with the world. I’m super excited because I’m playing around with making it a mixed media book. This is an example of a sample poster I’m working on (made in Canva):

Besides the rewrites I think the biggest news about the Queer Croc WIP is that I’m definitely self-publishing it. Traditional publishing is self-imploding, it doesn’t seem like it’s worth trying that route and if I self-publish it, I can do whatever I want with it. That thought is so freeing and my brain is whirling with ideas. I want to make this release as multi-faceted and me as possible. Don’t want to give away too much at this point, but expect big news as 2023 progresses. 

My Journey with the Demon WIP

Aye, the Demon WIP, my ultimate problem child. It just doesn’t know what it wants to be. I’ve rewritten this wip six times alone this year and each rewrite was 100-120K each. And it covered the same ground – a lot of backstory that was needed for the story to make sense, but I couldn’t figure out how to include in an engaging way. It also kept wanting to be like a western where a group of ragtag and violent guns for hire protect a town, but it also wanted to be an epic about the building of a multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic empire while withstanding the pressures of a very angry neighbor, while also being a study of the corrosive nature of organized religion, and a horror story about Demons and performing experiments no one should attempt, a story that explored themes of bodily autonomy, abortions, and gender expression, AND a continuation of Alex’s story from Kingsley where he’s being hunted by assassins while tracking down truths many people want hidden. It was just too much! Which is why it’s now three books, although it may still prove to be too much. Who knows.

While the Queer Croc WIP is a complicated book, it always had an easily identifiable core that I could build everything around. The Demon WIP does not. It only has a vague ending and a scattering of key points that need to be met for the other books to work, but its own center was missing. The reason why it was missing is because I haven’t done enough world building or character building to truly understand everyone’s motives, how they fit within the world, and how they interact with each other. I know what you’re thinking. You’ve written seven drafts and you still don’t understand all the characters? What can I say? There are a lot of characters. 

The one big difference between the Queer Croc WIP and the Demon WIP is that Kingsley is very quick. There’s a lot happening, but because it’s mostly told through Alex’s and Kingsley’s POV, we don’t get to linger and just sit with the world (which doesn’t really make sense if one considers Les Miserables as a huge inspiration for the Queer Croc WIP). The Demon WIP, however, wants to sit and linger. I think part of that is because I’m still figuring things out, but also because this book wants to be a proper LOTR’s worth of walking kind of epic. It basically wants to be a Dostoevsky book but with actual Demons. 

I’m really dreading writing this book again during 2023, but I think it will be better and easier now that I know the shape the arcs need to take. I guess we’ll see

My Journey with my Short Story

My friend @EzraArndtWrites on Twitter has an anthology titled: My Say In the Matter. It’s a pro-choice charity anthology, with all sale earnings going to be donated to Abortion Funds. I have a short story “Firebird” included in the anthology. It was a hard piece to write as it is about a nonbinary, aro-ace Ukrainian space explorer and the element spirit/cosmic force that needs his help. It was a very personal piece exploring a lot of themes close to my heart such as abortion, gender identity, bodily autonomy, existence outside of the human form, and the inability to have relationships that fit within the friendship and romantic/sexual partner binary. I hope people enjoy it when the anthology is released in February (don’t worry I’ll share all the links). It was interesting to take a break from my two main WIPs and I took a very experimental route with the structure of the story. I’m sure my friend wanted to kill me while formatting the piece.

I’ll definitely write more about the piece once the anthology is published, but I think it’s a very strong piece that allowed me to rely on my strengths while indulging in experimentation that made me happy in ways I wouldn’t have dared to try a few years ago. 

Overall, 2022 was a good writing year and I’m excited to see what 2023 brings.